The Mbale youth band is the best reading-music brass band in Uganda

Welcome to our Winter Newsletter for 2010.

Child Sponsorship

In October 2010 one of our sponsors, Chris Bird, made the long journey from the UK to the mountains of Eastern Uganda to visit his sponsored child. This is what he had to say after his visit:

“Sponsoring a specific child always seemed a better way to give aid to the developing world but for me even that seemed a bit remote. Not so now I had an opportunity to meet Mary, my sponsored child, in Uganda. It was great. My money is paying for her education and they have some money over and so have saved and bought a cow. Unfortunately where they live the hills are so steep they have to keep the cow at home and bring her food.

I saw that my money has really changed Mary’s life…and what can be a better feeling than that. “

If you are reading this newsletter, and are not an existing child sponsor, please consider whether you can support a child to enable them to receive a decent education. We have adopted a new policy for all new sponsorships and ask for £10 a month for a primary school child and £20 a month for a secondary school child. Support from existing child sponsors remains the same.

Music Program

Since I started our music program in Uganda many schools have asked me to help create a brass band for them – usually in an area where no band exists. I get many more requests than I can afford instruments for so I have to choose carefully. Last year I was approached by Hilary Storm Primary School in a village called Artutur. They were so enthusiastic about the program and were willing to pay a small salary for a music teacher and to provide for his accommodation and lodging.

From our existing bands there were only two boys who I considered might have the skills and personality to make a music teacher. One of these was David Gimei, an 18-year old trombone player. When I presented the opportunity to him he was very keen.

David’s father died when he was a few months old. His mother remarried but his new father resented him from the start and made his life a misery. He often had to sleep alone in their goat house. If it rained the roof leaked and he had to sit against the wall. His father made sure that he had nothing to eat till supper time. When he was sick he still had to work and was given no treatment.

He was put to work climbing trees to break off branches and leaves for the family cow. Frequently there were no leaves on the family’s land and he had to resort to climbing neighbours’ trees. If the neighbours caught him they beat him and if he came back empty-handed the father beat him. Obviously his education suffered as he was often away from school. At 15yrs old his father chased him away from home and he sought sanctuary at his grandmother’s. At this time he joined my first brass band at Highway School in Sironko. On many days he was beaten on way to and from school as his friends were jealous of his playing and he had little support from others who disliked any form of cultural activities. I noticed him straight away because of his poor health and torn clothes.

Fortunately we found him a sponsor two years ago, and he has also shown a great talent for music. He has flourished since then as he finally found something he was good at. He was never going to do well academically because he missed so much of his education. His prospects were bleak because he step-father also stole the land that would have been his birthright,

I’m aware that in the past, some supporters were not so sure about music as a priority for our charity work but I hope they can now begin to see how powerful it can become in a country where there is so much youth unemployment. How much better to give children a chance to make their own way in life than to simply receive handouts from people in the Western world.

In December my main band based at Highway School in Sironko was chosen to accompany President Museveni on a two-month tour of all the districts in Uganda in the run up to February’s general election. You can’t imagine what an honour it is for these youngsters to be selected for this project and I’m so proud of them.

When I began my brass band program in Uganda I already knew about the benefits that youth music can bring to childrens’ lives. I knew from my own experience that music can teach a child responsibility, how to be part of a team, and is a way of building self-confidence and nurturing many other positive values. In Uganda, particularly, playing in a musical ensemble gives many children their first exposure to discipline outside school, teaches them to think and concentrate and gives them an understanding that if one works hard and is determined you can achieve success. I also knew that giving a children something to do in a village where there is no entertainment or opportunity to be creative is a very good way of preventing them from getting into trouble and misusing their time and wasting their talent.

What I didn’t realise when I first started making music here is that creating a brass band is also one of the best ways of delivering sustainable aid to impoverished communities. Some of you may recall from my last Newsletter that in Uganda, like most countries in the world, there are a small minority of rich individuals and organizations. So, as in fundraising in the UK, the challenge is to persuade people who have more than enough money to donate some small part of their wealth to others who live in utter poverty. Creating a brass band achieves this as customers pay for engagements and the children receive some money in return that they can use for their school fees, books, and uniforms.

In our previous newsletters we issued an appeal to raise funds to bring a band to the UK. After a lot of publicity I have had to concede that in these tough economic times the appeal is unlikely to succeed unless we find a corporate sponsor. So, instead, I have had to concentrate on trying to raise funds for a cause that is just as important but more endurable.

All the hundreds of children playing in our music program look to me to try and get the one thing we all dream about – our own band bus. Private hire buses here are almost impossible to find and we have to leave behind one third of the players every time we have an engagement because we can’t get them all into a taxi minibus (our instruments have to go on the roof!). It’s heartbreaking when some of the kids work so hard in rehearsals only to be told that they can’t perform in public. A vehicle will cost us about £10,000 so it’s a massive target but we can only try. We’ve raised about £1,000 so far so we have at least made a start.

Mbale Schools Band trying to fit into a taxi minibus that can only carry 14 – 16 children

I realise that the amount of money we’re aiming for is a daunting challenge. For those supporters who may want to help on a smaller scale, I really need donations to help purchase music stands, chairs, sheet music, and uniforms or to contribute towards the high cost of transporting instruments from the UK to Uganda. The children and I would be so grateful for even the smallest amount of help.

Healthcare and Community Projects

GENERAL

For some time now I have wanted to increase the accountability of our work in Uganda and establish a more permanent structure that will encompass all our activities. Although I have audited accounts in the UK as part of my registered charity status I only have the trust of supporters and sponsors for funds that have been transferred to Uganda.

The obvious way forward is for me to establish a Non-Goverment Organization (NGO) in Uganda. An NGO is the universally accepted organization structure for a charity in most countries in the developing world. Accordingly, I have created a new NGO called:

East Uganda Youth Music Foundation

From next year we will channel all our charity work in Uganda through this new institution. In this way we will have an audited organization in the UK raising and transferring funds for an audited organization in Uganda. Obviously not all our work involves youth music, and only about half of our sponsored children are in a brass band, but for simplicity’s sake all our activity in respect of funding will pass through the new organization. It goes without saying that the name ugive2ganda doesn’t work well in Uganda. I suppose I could have called the new organization the ‘Banana Tree’ or some permutation of ‘Help Needy Children’ but I have chosen the above name as something that best describes a good portion of what we do.

This new institution will also allow a few trusted Ugandans to be on our Executive Committee and be more involved in our work and to be part of an association that will provide sustainability into the future. After our first year of operation I will make the accounts of the new organization available for public scrutiny via the internet.

On a separate note, some of you who have been following the story of the Bududa mudslide disaster earlier this year in which 350 people died will be pleased to know that the camp set up in the aftermath of the crisis has finally been closed. All the 2,000 people living in the camp have either been resettled in the west of Uganda or have decided to go home and accept the risk that they are living inn an area that will always be prone to this type of disaster in the future. We are continuing to sponsor a number of children who were bereaved by the tragedy – and will do so for many years.

I am also delighted to report that we now have our first four young people being sponsored through vocational training. Mary Lane and her friends are supporting Sauda and Francis though a diploma n Social Services. They had both sat at home for a year after completing their A levels with very little prospect of employment and no money to continue their studies. Now they have hope.

Anton and Saddam have left school after their O levels but next month will begin training in vehicle maintenance thanks to their sponsors who have decided to continue their sponsorship even though they had left school. Thanks to another kind sponsor, Caroline Namono also received support for a year’s tailoring course, and a sewing machine at the end of it, so that she can earn a living in a village with few opportunities.

Supporters

Although I have included the names of some of our most enthusiastic supporters in our distributed newsletter I have deleted their names from this section of the website copy of the newsletter. Putting supporters’ names up on the internet tends to invite scores of unsolicited requests from others.

Can I offer my wholehearted gratitude to so many for all the support that we have received in 2010. We couldn’t do anything without the help of our donors and child sponsors. A huge thank you to all of you.

Philip Monk

Founder - ugive2uganda

8 Woodlands P.O. Box 47

Huntingdon Mbale

PE26 6JQ Uganda

Tel. 0780 193 0404 (in UK) 00256 7731 46983 (in Uganda)

Email: ugive2uganda1@aol.com

Website: www.ugive2uganda.org

Bank Details: Barclays Huntingdon, A/c name ugive2uganda, Sort Code 20-43-63, A/c number 50030708

Newsletter – Winter 2010